Abstract:

This Master’s Thesis examines the role and use of evidence in the context of service design in the public sector. The goal of this study was to map out and outline the views and experiences of service designers working within the public sector, about the use of evidence and evidence-based practices. Service design consultancies are working with the public sector more and more, creating value together with the decision makers and creating better and policies with decreasing financial resources. Service designers have skills, awareness, methods and know-how needed to navigate this sometimes very conservative field. The study examined, how service designers make use of evidence, how evidence is defined within this context in the first place, and discussed, how evidence could be used better in public sector projects, regarding for example measuring functionality, scalability or impact.

The study was conducted using qualitative research methods. Data collection was completed during Spring 2016 using semi-structured interviews with 20 experts in order to explore and investigate how evidence is used in practice. The interviews were primarily directed to service designers working for private service design consultancies. Also experts working with the public sector were interviewed for background purposes. In order to gain a global overview and a multicultural perspective, the informants were selected to include different countries, including Finland, Sweden, Denmark, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the United States.

The findings describe the role of evidence from service designer’s point of view, which included in practice what constitutes evidence, how and why it is utilised. The study shows that evidence has different meanings and definitions, and it can be utilised case-by-case during the service design process, depending on the subject matter. Argumentative evidence is the most basic form of evidence that allows service designer to show rigour in regard to design practice – and at its simplest form demonstrates the level of rigour in the service design process. When defining the problem and the solution, evidence can be empirical experience-based evidence or qualitative evidence. Promising evidence can be collected and generated through fast experiments and prototypes, and used to validate hypotheses, or justify the relevance of the potential solution to the context. The study also showed, that the use of different indicators and metrics are useful tools for measuring the impact, and that the quality and strength of the evidence are largely dependent on the nature, scope and goals of the service design project.